Netanyahu: "If you don't release the hostages, you will pay a price you can't imagine""

March 3, 2025   

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participated today (Monday) in the '40 Signatures Debate' on the establishment of a state investigation committee into the October 7th debacle initiated by the opposition - and delivered a speech. Bereaved families came to the podium after a confrontation with the guards - who initially refused to let them into the podium. During Netanyahu's speech, families turned their backs on Netanyahu. Knesset Speaker Ohana ordered the families to be removed, but Netanyahu said that the protest did not bother him. Netanyahu said: "These are days that touch the deepest veins of our souls as Israelis who love the country. We are preparing for the next stages of the War of Rebirth - the War on Seven Fronts. We will not stop until we achieve all the goals of victory - the return of all our hostages, the destruction of Hamas' military and governmental power, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel." The Prime Minister added: "Thanks to the determined decisions we made, we were able to bring home 80 hostages instead of 50 in the first deal. After that, for many months, Hamas refused every deal, and senior US administration officials are also saying the same. In this deal, Hamas agreed to release only 12 hostages in the first phase. It was only thanks to my insistence and that of my friends that we reached a much better deal. You are not telling the families of the hostages this." Netanyahu accused the opposition members and claimed: "You are turning the families of the hostages against me." He promised: "We will not give up any of the hostages - the living and the dead. We have adopted the 'Witkoff Outline' that proposed a ceasefire for the Ramadan and Passover periods in exchange for the return of all the other hostages. Hamas has once again entrenched itself in its negative position. Even if negotiations for a permanent ceasefire are not practical at the moment, Witkoff's proposal is a way to return all the hostages, according to which about half will be released on the first attempt, and about half on the last day if we reach an agreement. "The other day we decided to stop the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip. Lately, Hamas has been looting supplies from residents even more intensively and turning them into its money machine to generate terror against us. I say to Hamas - if you do not release our hostages - there will be consequences that you cannot imagine." He continued: "Since the terrorist attack on October 7, we have exacted a huge price from our enemy. We have done things here that no one believed would be done. Our chain of great achievements has changed the Middle East. Now we are preparing for the next stages of the campaign. Of course, not everything is visible, and not everything needs to be talked about. You have already learned that important processes ripen in secrecy and at the right moment what needs to happen bursts powerfully from the surface. In recent months, the entire world has seen the power of Israel and Israel's cunning. "It is important and necessary to investigate in depth everything that happened to us on October 7 and what preceded it, but this investigation must win the trust of the people, or the trust of an overwhelming majority of the people. Therefore, we demand the establishment of an objective, balanced, independent investigation committee. Not an investigation committee whose conclusions have already been written in advance. What do you think we don't understand? We want an unbiased, genuine investigation committee. The public demands the truth and we demand the truth. We want a committee that will investigate everything, without exception." Netanyahu added: "I also demand an investigation into serious leaks from cabinet meetings and sensitive security discussions. First of all, MK Karib's criminal leak from a secret discussion of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. I demand an investigation into the distribution of the false video from the Yemeni field. I demand an investigation into Yair Golan's incitement to refusal. None of this is being investigated. And what is being investigated? Stories plucked from the finger. "Most of the people see everything that is happening here. The cooperation between the Deep State officials and the media did not succeed in the US and will not succeed here. I will not shy away from fabricated investigations and a political hunt. I will continue to insist on the truth, I will continue to demand a balanced investigation committee that will reach the truth, I will continue to act until the absolute victory." A particularly ugly incident occurred in the plenum, after MK Gilad Kariv from Labor shouted at the Prime Minister: "You have forgotten what it is to be a bereaved family." Netanyahu replied: "MK Kariv, I know what bereaved families are. Shame on you." The Prime Minister also referred to the immigration plan for residents of the Gaza Strip and said: "In the last year and a half, tens of thousands have left Gaza. They bribed their way out. The rich left, but the poor were left behind, subject to the needs of Hamas. It is time to give the residents of Gaza a real choice, to give them the freedom to leave." Later, Netanyahu took to the podium again to answer Yair Lapid - and scolded: "I understood that you published a plan for Gaza in the US with 7-8 points, one clause for each of your mandates..."'